In this book, three leading experts: Richard Palliser, James Vigus and Colin McNab take a revolutionary look at two popular and closely related openings: The Pirc and the Modern.

Instead of analysing the well-trodden main lines they concentrate on fresh or little-explored variations, selecting a wealth of 'dangerous' options for both colours.

Richard Palliser: "The Pirc and the Modern are two of Black’s more dynamic defences to 1 e4. Both openings are also enjoying something of a renaissance of late. (..) They have been employed (..) by players as Ivanchuk, Mamedyarov, Morozevich and Svidler.

Thus it made good sense to introduce The Pirc and the Modern into the Dangerous Weapons series. I am delighted to say that much of this book is by two leading Pirc and Modern exponents, Colin McNab and James Vigus.

They are, of course, also noted theoreticians: Colin co-authored the authoritative The Ultimate Pirc with John Nunn back in 1998, while more recently James has won over many to the black cause with his The Pirc in Black and White."

• The Pirc and Modern as never seen before
• Packed with original ideas and analysis
• An armory of weapons to shock your opponents

Index of variations:

1 Castling into the Argentinean Attack
(1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 g6 4 Be3 Bg7 5 Qd2 0-0 6 0-0-0)

2 Castling into the 150 Attack
(1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 g6 4 Be3 Bg7 5 Qd2 0-0 6 others)

3 A Neglected Approach in the Classical
(1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 g6 4 Nf3 Bg7 5 Be2 0-0 6 0-0 c6 7 Bf4)

4 Benjamin’s Flexible 6...e6
(1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 g6 4 Nf3 Bg7 5 Be2 0-0 6 0-0 e6)

5 A Cunning Sidestep
(1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 g6 4 f4 Bg7 5 Nf3 c5 6 Bb5+ Bd7 7 e5 Ng4 8 e6 Bxb5 9 exf7+ Kf8)

6 The Delayed Spike
(1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 g6 4 Be2 Bg7 5 Be3 0-0 6 g4)

7 Not the 150 Attack!
(1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 g6 4 Be2 Bg7 5 Be3 c6 6 Qd2)

8 Spicing up the Fianchetto Variation
(1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 g6 4 g3 Bg7 5 Bg2 0-0 6 Nge2 e5 7 h3 a6)

9 Meeting 4 Bg5 in Dragon Style
(1 e4 g6 2 d4 Bg7 3 Nc3 d6 4 Bg5 Nd7)

10 Blunting White’s Bishop on c4
(1 e4 g6 2 d4 Bg7 3 Nf3 d6 4 Bc4 e6)

11 An Early Lunge
(1 e4 g6 2 h4)

12 Trumping a Tricky Transposition
(1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 f3 c5)